“Therefore, prostitute, hear Yahweh’s word:
Parallel Translations
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“Therefore, prostitute, hear Yahweh’s word:
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Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:
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Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD!
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 16:35 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Kings 22:19 Micaiah said, “Therefore hear Yahweh’s word. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
- Isaiah 1:10 Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
- Isaiah 1:21 How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in her, but now there are murderers.
- Isaiah 23:15-16 It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute. Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered.
- Isaiah 28:14 Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:
- Jeremiah 3:1 “They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 3:6-8 Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there. I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.
- Ezekiel 13:2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word:
- Ezekiel 20:47 Tell the forest of the South, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word: The Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree. The burning flame will not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it.
- Ezekiel 34:7 “ ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear Yahweh’s word:
- Hosea 2:5 For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
- Hosea 4:1 Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
- Amos 7:16 Now therefore listen to Yahweh’s word: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’
- Nahum 3:4 because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.
- John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
- John 4:18 for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
- Revelation 17:5 And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain After God has inveighed against the people’s sins, and…
After God has inveighed against the people’s sins, and treated the whole nation as guilty, he now pronounces judgment on their wickedness. He repeats shortly what he had said, as a judge explains the reason of his sentence. Since, says he, the lower parts of thy body and thy disgrace has been discovered before thy lovers. This is the reason of the judgment, whence it is collected that God is induced to treat his people harshly for just and necessary causes. It now follows: therefore, says he, I will assemble all thy lovers, with those also whom you hate, I will assemble them, and uncover thy shame before them. We may now see what the Jews are threatened with, namely, a disgraceful destruction, so that they become a common laughingstock without any one to succor them; for the diction is metaphorical when he speaks of lovers and of parts of the body; for by lovers he here means the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Chaldeeans. Whence their opinion is refuted who think that the Prophet treats only of superstitions. Nor can this language be transferred to idols, since we know that false gods were not spectators of the punishment which the Prophet denounces against the Jews. Whence it follows that this language will only suit those persons to whose protection the Jews trusted, so as to treat God’s help as useless. Since, then, such is the metaphorical sense of the passage, we understand that shame means spoliation and slaughter; nay, the destruction of both the kingdom and city, and even of the temple. Thus the nation was a common laughingstock, and in this way like a foul and aged harlot. Now we understand the Prophet’s intention. As to Jerome translating “wealth,” it is altogether adverse to the Prophet’s meaning; there is no doubt that he means the lower part of the body, and it follows in the same sense, thy shame was uncovered. But at the same time God expresses why it was done, namely, for fornication, as if an abandoned woman were to act so disgracefully. He now says it was done towards your lovers, towards the idols of your abominations: על, gnel, is here taken for towards or against. He distinguishes between lovers and idols. Those who think that the Prophet treats only of superstitious think the copula superfluous; but there is no doubt that the Prophet means, on one side, the Assyrians, and Egyptians, and Chaldeeans; and on the other, false gods.
And in bloods, says he. He here adds another crime, namely, that of barbarous cruelty, because they did not spare their own sons, as we saw before: many offered up their children, and some were found so excited as to cast them into the fire: it was indeed a monstrous crime when they hesitated not to rage against their own offspring: but they were so carried away by insane zeal that they burnt, up their children when others only drew them through the fire. Hence the Prophet again accuses them of cruelty for offering their children to idols, and so pouring forth innocent blood. Now follows the punishment. Behold, says he, I collect all thy lovers. We said that this ought to be understood of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Chaldreans, all of whom looked upon the slaughter of that perverse and perfidious nation, but none of them helped her. God therefore pronounces the destruction of the people just like that of a harlot abandoned by her lovers, and perishing through hunger, want, and other miseries: for it very often happens that a person under the impulse of love prefers a harlot to his own life; for he will throw off all regard for his wife; he will be disrespectful to both his father and mother, and will break through every restraint to enjoy her company: but when such persons are grown old, and their hair becomes white, which represents the winter of life, and when wrinkles deform the face, then they are despised, and especially if they suffer through disease. So also the Prophet now says that the Jews would be despised by all, so that their lovers should be compelled to behold that example; and meanwhile they scarcely deign to look at the foul appearance which had formerly sweetly delighted them.
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Then he proceeds further, namely, that their enemies should behold their ignominy: we know that the Jews were surrounded on all sides by enemies, and that all their neighbors were hostile to them. The Prophet now says that the nations disgrace should be exposed before their lovers, that is, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, Chaldaeans, Philistilles, Edomites, and other nations. This passage teaches us, that although the reason for God’s judgments does not always clearly appear, yet they are never too severe; and when he condescends to afford us a reason, he grants us a gratuitous indulgence. But when he silently executes his judgments, let us learn to acquiesce in his justice, and not to cry out if he exceeds moderation; because when he has once explained that his severity is only justice, hence we must gather the general rule, that whenever he seems to treat his people too severely and harshly, yet he has just reasons for it. Let us learn, also, that the Jews only suffered a just recompense when God so cursed all their counsels. They thought themselves very provident and circumspect when they engaged in alliances with Egyptians and Assyrians. But all their plans turned out unhappily for them, since they consulted their own will contrary to that of God. Let us learn, then, if we wish to promote our own salvation, and to obtain a prosperous result, to do nothing without God’s permission, and not to undertake any deliberations except those which God has dictated and suggested by his word and Spirit. For here every future event is shown to us as in a glass when we wish to be wiser than they ought, and than God permits them. It now follows —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 16:35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of…
Eze 16:35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:
Ver. 35. Wherefore, O harlot.] A name good enough for such an odious housewife, the shame of her sex. He is not worthy of an honest name whose deeds are not honest.
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Hear the word of the Lord.] Hear thy doom, thy sentence: stoned thou shalt be as an adulteress, slain with the sword as a murderess, burned with fire as an incendiary, because thou hast burned thy children in honour of Moloch. {a}
{a} απ εργων ου καλων ουκ εστιν επη καλα.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Her indictment and notoriety of all the charge against…
Her indictment and notoriety of all the charge against her we have heard; her crimes she was guilty of, with the aggravations of them; now follows sentence of condemnation against her.
Hear the word of just condemnation which thou must submit to, though thou refusedst the word of counsel and precept.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Adultery was by the law of Moses made a…
Adultery was by the law of Moses made a capital crime. This notorious adulteress, the criminal at the bar, being in the foregoing verses found guilty, here has sentence passed upon her. It is ushered in with solemnity, Eze 16:35. The prophet, as the judge, in God's name calls to her, O harlot! hear the word of the Lord. Our Saviour preached to harlots, for their conversion, to bring them into the kingdom of God, not as the prophet here, to expel them out of it. Note, An apostate church is a harlot. Jerusalem is so if she become idolatrous. How has the faithful city become a harlot! Rome is so represented in the Revelation, when it is marked for ruin, as Jerusalem here. Rev 17:1, Come, and I will show thee the judgments of the great whore. Those who will not hear the commanding word of the Lord and obey it shall be made to hear the condemning word of the Lord and shall tremble at it. Let us attend while judgment is given.
I. The crime is stated and the articles of the charge are summed up (Eze 16:36) and (as is usual) with the attendant aggravations (Eze 16:43); for when God speaks in wrath he will be justified, and clear when he judges, clear when he is judged; and sinners, when they are condemned, shall have their sins so set in order before them that their mouth shall be stopped and they shall not have a word to object against the equity of the sentence. The crimes which this harlot stands convicted of, and is now to be condemned for, are, 1. The violation of the first two commandments of the first table by idolatry, which is here called her whoredoms with her lovers (so she called them, Hos 2:12, because she loved them as if they had been indeed her benefactors), that is, with all the idols of her abominations, the abominable idols which she served and worshipped. This was the sin which provoked God to jealousy. 2. The violation of the first two commandments of the second table by the murder of their own innocent infants: The blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them. It is not strange if those that have cast off God and his fear break through the strongest and most sacred bonds of natural affection. Their sins are aggravated from the consideration, (1.) Of the dishonour they had thereby done to themselves: "Hereby thy filthiness was poured out; the uncleanness that was in thy heart was hereby discovered and brought to light, and thy nakedness was exposed to view, and thou wast thereby exposed to contempt." God is displeased with his professing people for shaming themselves by their sins. (2.) Their base ingratitude is another aggravation of their sins: "Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, and the kindness that was done thee then, when otherwise thou wouldst have perished," Eze 16:43. And, (3.) The vexation which their sins gave to God, whom they ought to have pleased: "Thou hast fretted me in all these things, not only angered me, but grieved me." It is a strange expression, and, one would think, enough to melt a heart of stone, that the great God, who cannot admit any uneasiness, is pleased to speak of the sins and follies of his professing people as fretting to him. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation.
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II. The sentence is passed in general: I will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged (Eze 16:38), and those two crimes were punished with death, with an ignominious death. "Thou hast shed blood, and therefore I will give thee blood; thou hast broken wedlock, and therefore I will give it thee, not only in justice, but in jealousy, not only as a righteous Judge, but as an injured and incensed husband, who will not spare in the day of vengeance," Pro 6:34, Pro 6:35. He will recompense their way upon their head, Eze 16:43. In all the judgments God executes upon sinners we must see their own way recompensed upon their head; they are dealt with not only as they deserved, but as they procured. It is the end which their sin, as a way, had a direct tendency to. More particularly, 1. This criminal must be (as is usually done with criminals) exposed to public shame, Eze 16:37. Malefactors are not executed privately, but are made a spectacle to the world. Care is here taken to bring spectators together: "All those whom thou hast loved, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, shall come to be witnesses of the execution, that they may take warning and prevent their own like ruin; and those also whom thou hast hated, who will insult over thee and triumph in thy fall." Both ways the calamities of Jerusalem will be aggravated, that they will be the grief of her friends and the joy of her foes. These shall not only be gathered around her, but gathered against her; even those with whom she took unlawful pleasure, with whom she contracted unlawful leagues, the Egyptians and Assyrians, shall now contribute to her ruin. As, when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him, so when a man's ways displease the Lord he makes even his friends to be at war with him; and justly makes those a scourge and a plague to sinners, and instruments of their destruction, who were their tempters, and with whom they were partakers in wickedness. Those whom they have suffered to strip them of their virtue shall see them stripped, and perhaps help to strip them, of all their other ornaments; to see the nakedness of the land will they come. It is added, to the same purport (Eze 16:41), I will execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women; thou shalt be made an example of in terrorem - that others may see and fear and do no more presumptuously. 2. The criminal is condemned to die, for her sins are such as death is the wages of (Eze 16:40): They shall bring up a company (that is, a company shall be brought up) against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords; so great a death, so many deaths in one, is this adulteress adjudged to. When the walls of Jerusalem were battered down with stones shot against them, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were put to the sword, then this sentence was executed in the letter of it. 3. The estate of the criminal is confiscated, and all that belonged to her destroyed with her (Eze 16:39): They shall throw down thy eminent place, and (Eze 16:41) they shall burn thy houses, as the habitations of bad women are destroyed, in detestation of their lewdness. Their high places, erected in honour of their idols, by which they thought to ingratiate themselves with their neighbours, shall be an offence to them, and even they shall break them down. It was long the complaint, even in some of the best reigns of the kings of Judah, that the high places were not taken away; but now the army of the Chaldeans, when they lay all waste, shall break them down. If iniquity be not taken away by the justice of the nation, it shall be taken away by the judgments of God upon the nation. 4. Thus both the sin and the sinners shall be abolished together, and an end put to both: Thou shalt cease from playing the harlot; there shall be no remainders of idolatry in the land, because the inhabitants shall be wholly extirpated, and they shall give no more hire because they shall have no more to give. Some that will not leave their sins live till their sins leave them. When all that with which they honoured their idols is taken from them they shall not give hire any more (Eze 16:41): "Then thou shalt not commit this lewdness of sacrificing thy children, which was a crime provoking above all thy abominations, for thy children shall all be cut off by the sword or carried into captivity, so that thou shalt have none to sacrifice," Eze 16:43. Or it may be meant of the reformation of those of them that escape and survive the punishment; they shall take warning, and shall do no more presumptuously. The captivity in Babylon made the people of Israel to cease for ever from playing the harlot; it effectually cured them of their inclination to idolatry. And then all shall be well, when this is the fruit, even the taking away of sin; then (Eze 16:42) my jealousy shall depart. I will be quiet, and no more angry. When we begin to be at war with sin God will be at peace with us; for he continues the affliction no longer than till it has done its work. When sin departs God's jealousy will soon depart, for he is never jealous but when we give him just cause to be so. Yet some understand this as a threatening of utter ruin, that God will make a full end and the fire of his anger shall burn as long as there is any fuel for it. His fury shall rest upon them, and not remove. Compare this with that doom of unbelievers, Joh 3:36. The wrath of God abideth on them. They shall drink the dregs of the cup, and then God will be no more angry, for he is eased of his adversaries (Isa 1:24), is satisfied in the abandoning of them, and therefore will be no more angry, because there are no more for his anger to fasten upon. They had fretted him, when judgment and mercy were contesting; but now he is quiet, as he will be in the eternal damnation of sinners, wherein he will be glorified, and therefore he will be satisfied.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thus saith the Lord God, because thy filthiness was…
Thus saith the Lord God, because thy filthiness was poured out,.... Or, "thy brass" (p). The word is used by the Rabbins (q) for the bottom of a thing; and is here accordingly, by Kimchi and Ben Melech, interpreted of a woman's lower part; the same with her nakedness next mentioned; and from whence, by reason of her inordinate lust, and the frequent exercise of it, and that with many different persons, a gonorrhoea, as Jarchi explains it, or a filthy flux flowed, and was poured out on her lovers; from whence the filthy disease, the "lues venerea":
and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers; which she discovered or exposed to view herself, in order to entice her lovers to lie with her, and for the sake thereof; see Eze 16:25;
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and with all the idols of thine abominations; or abominable idols, which were so in themselves, were abominable to God, and made the worshippers of them so likewise; these are distinguished from her lovers, the Egyptians and Assyrians, her confederates, and by means of whose alliance she fell into idolatry:
and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them; the idols, to whom they were dedicated and sacrificed; and for whose sake, and for the worship of them, they were caused to pass through the fire, and were burnt in it; and by such shocking murders, as well as idolatrous practices, the depravity of their nature, the wickedness of their hearts, their hypocrisy, treachery, and infidelity, were discovered and made known.
(p) , Sept. "aes tuum", Montanus, Vatablus, Calvin, Tigurine version, Starckius; "virus tuum", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus, Piscator, Grotius; "aerugo tua", Cocceius. (q) Misn. Celim, c. 8. sect. 3. Vid. T. Bab. Nidda, fol. 41. 2. & Gloss. in ib.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Judah is now represented as undergoing the punishment adjudged…
Judah is now represented as undergoing the punishment adjudged to an adulteress and murderess. Only in her utter destruction shall the wrath of the Lord, the jealous God, cease.
Eze 16:36
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Filthiness - Or, brass, i. e., money, is lavished. The Hebrews generally speak of money as gold Isa 46:6, but brass coins were not unknown in the time of the Maccabees. Compare Mat 10:9; Mar 12:41. Ezekiel may here have put brass for gold contemptuously. Compare Isa 1:22-25; Isa 48:10.
Eze 16:38
I will give thee blood in fury - Rather, “I will make thee a bloody sacrifice to fury and jealousy.” By the Law of Moses, death was the penalty for murder Exo 21:12, and for adultery (Lev 20:10; e. g., by stoning, Eze 16:40). The circumstances of the siege of Jerusalem corresponded with the punishment of the adulteress; the company gathered around her were the surrounding armies, the fury of the jealous husband was the fury of the attacking army, the stripping off her ornaments was the rapine of the siege, the stoning the battering-rams, the bloody death being the slaughter in the battle.
Eze 16:42
So ... rest - Or, “My fury shall not rest until thou art utterly ruined.”
Eze 16:43
Thou shalt not ... abominations - Others render it: “I will not do wickedly because of all thine etc.” i. e., by allowing jerusalem to remain unpunished
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Here begins the threat of wrath to be poured…
Here begins the threat of wrath to be poured out on her.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 35–43. Punishment of the adulterous wife, and child-murderer
35–43. Punishment of the adulterous wife, and child-murderer
This punishment is described in somewhat mixed figures: first, Eze_16:36-39, in a figure which tends to pass into a literal account of the destruction of Jerusalem; and secondly, Eze_16:40-43, in a figure suggested by the punishment of the ordinary adulteress.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain From the task of painting the guilt of Judah…
From the task of painting the guilt of Judah the prophet proceeds to that of denouncing its punishment.
Vers. 35-43. Judicial verdict.
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It is a great kindness done by any one if he disclose to us the real nature of our sin. Light from any quarter should be welcomed. To demonstrate to the Hebrews that their idolatry was the worst form of adultery was an act of condescension on the part of God. By their own state law they knew that this sin incurred the penalty of death. With all the circumstance of judicial solemnity, the Supreme Judge summons the attention of the culprit: "O harlot, hear the word of the Lord!
I THE JUDICIAL SUMMING UP. The accusations against Israel were twofold.
1. Conjugal infidelity. The covenant made between Jehovah and Israel the covenant more sacred than between bridegroom and bride had been wantonly broken. Of this proof was furnished in abundance. It was openly displayed. Shameless publicity marked the dead.
2. Murder of children. The children created by God, and on whom he had set peculiar affection, were cruelly sacrificed unto the insatiable idols. It was murder of the worst sort murder of innocent and helpless victims. No language of man could exaggerate or over colour the crime.
II THE RIGHTEOUS SENTENCE. "I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and that shed blood are judged.
1. The criminal is condemned to public shame. She had openly beasted of her sin; she shall be openly exposed. She shall be made a spectacle to the world. Care shall be taken to bring her companions and paramours to the sight. The most secret intrigue shall be set in the clear light of day. Friends and foes alike shall witness the disgrace.
2. Forfeiture of all possessions. "They shall take thy fair jewels." All the instruments of sin shall be sequestered. The illicit gains of iniquity soon turn to loss. "The wages of sin is death.
3. Summary death. "They shall stone thee with stones." This was the penalty assigned to adultery in the Jewish code. This was the penalty for an individual culprit. But for a community, the punishment ordained was the sword. Therefore it is added, "They shall thrust thee through with their swords." In God"s world neither adultery nor idolatry shall long be tolerated.
4. It was an equitable recompense. "I will recompense thy way upon thy head." The entire punishment proceeded in the most natural way; ay, it proceeded in the way of nature. No strange portent appeared in heaven or earth. To the carnal eye no hand nor sword of God was manifest; yet full execution of the sentence was done. As at the creation every plant had the latent power to propagate itself, equally every sin carries in itself suitable and adequate punishment. Death is only ripe sin.
5. It was a satisfaction to eternal righteousness. "I will be quiet, and will be no more angry." The righteousness of God is a force of tremendous energy, and can only be quieted by adequate repentance or adequate retribution. As the sea cannot be calm while a tempest of wind sweeps over its surface, no more can the justice of God be complacent while sin is rampant. But when sin is atoned for, there is profoundest peace an eternal calm. D.
Vers. 35-43. A picture of righteous retribution because of apostasy.
O harlot, hear the word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord God; Because thy filthiness was poured out," etc. The scope and meaning of this paragraph is clearly and forcibly stated in the "Speaker"s Commentary:" "The punishment of Judah is represented by the same figure as her sin. She has been portrayed as an adulteress and a murderess. She is now represented as undergoing the punishment adjudged to an adulteress and murderess. The scene is a court of justice, before which the Lord himself appears to arraign the guilty woman. There are present those who are now her lovers, and those whom she has loved and deserted (the idolatrous nations with whom Judah has had guilty intercourse), to witness, to share, or to exult in, her disgrace. In proportion to her former honour shall be her present shame. As a woman suspected of infidelity to her husband had her head uncovered by way of disgrace, so this convicted adulteress shall be stripped bare, exposed to utter shame, shall be stoned and slain, and her house shall be made desolate. Only in her utter destruction shall the wrath of the Lord, the jealous God, cease." In our text
I THE SINS OF WHICH THE PEOPLE OF JERUSALEM WERE GUILTY ARE STATED. These have been set forth at length in the preceding paragraph, and we have considered them here. And, indeed, all the important points in the section now before us have come under our notice in earlier portions of the writings of Ezekiel, most of them more than once; a brief consideration of them will therefore be sufficient in this place. The sins of which the people are here convicted are these.
1. Sinful forgetfulness of their early history. "Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth" (ver. 43; cf. ver. 22). They forgot the low estate in which the Lord found them in Egypt, and from which he had raised them into a condition of national life, prosperity, and power. This forgetfulness involved base ingratitude.
2. Shameful apostasy from God. "Thus saith the Lord God; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered," etc. The "filthiness" of the Authorized Version should be "brass." The word is used either "for metals of all kinds, or goods and chattels generally, or money in particular It is put instead of the "whoredoms" of ver. 15, because, according to ver. 33, these were purchased by means of presents" (Schroder).
3. The idolatrous and cruel sacrifice of their own children. "The blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them" (ver. 36; cf. vers. 20, 21).
II THE SENTENCE ON ACCOUNT OF THESE SINS IS PRONOUNCED.
1. The end of their prosperity and the destruction of their city. "I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place," etc. (vers. 39, 41). There is unmistakable reference here to the siege of Jerusalem, and to the destruction, loss, and misery connected therewith. The people had abused their prosperity to the dishonour of God, and he would completely strip them of prosperity, deprive them of power, and leave them naked and bare as they were when the Lord first interposed for them (ver. 7). "The unfaithful use of the gifts of God inevitably brings on their loss. God cannot be mocked.
2. Their violent death for their spiritual adultery and physical murder. "I will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy They shall also bring up a company against thee," etc. (vers. 38, 40). According to the Law of Moses, adultery was to be punished with death by stoning (Deu_22:24; Joh_8:5) death was also the penalty of murder. (Exo_21:12) Such were the judgments of adulteresses and of murderers; and in the siege and capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar such judgments were inflicted upon the guilty people of that city.
3. Their violent death in the presence of and inflicted by the nations with whom they had sinned. (Vers. 37, 41). The "many women" of ver. 41 are the neighbouring nations. These nations should behold the downfall and degradation, the shame and misery, of the apostate people; and the Chaldeans should be the instruments for accomplishing their overthrow, into whose hands they were given by the Lord. It is often so ordered, in the providence of God, that the companions of sinners in their sins become the weapons by which they am punished for those sins. "This is the curse of sin," says Schroder, "that those with whom we have sinned make common cause with our enemies for our punishment .... Friends may in certain circumstances be the most painful rods in God"s hand.
III THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SENTENCE IS INDICATED. "I will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord God" (ver. 43). The Revised Version is more correct: "I also will bring thy way upon thine head." Sinners "are dealt with not only as they deserved, but as they procured. It is the end which their sin, as a way, had a direct tendency to," which God will bring upon their head.
CONCLUSION. Our subject utters solemn warning against sin, especially on the part of those who have been much blessed by God; for the heinousness of sin is proportionate with the greatness of privilege, and the severity of punishment will correspond with the heinousness of sin. W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain ISRAEL’S PUNISHMENT WILL CORRESPOND WITH HER SINS. (Eze_16:35-42)
ISRAEL’S PUNISHMENT WILL CORRESPOND WITH HER SINS. (Eze_16:35-42)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Eze_16:35-36. “Because thy filthiness was poured out.” Heb. “Because thy brass has been lavished.” Brass is used here to signify money. Israel had spent the wealth which God had given her in the servise of idolatry. “That the Jews, at least those in the exile, as well as classic antiquity, had copper money, follows even from our passage, and is confirmed by Mat_10:9, Mar_12:41, where brass occurs directly for money. The paramours are, according to what follows, pre-eminently the world-powers themselves. Along with them are named the heathen gods, whose worship was a consequence of political dependence.—(Hengstenberg.) “And by the blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them.” They were also guilty of murder in sacrificing their children to Moloch (Eze_16:20.)
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Eze_16:37. “I will gather all thy lovers.” Chiefly those of Assyria and Babylon. “With all them that thou hast hated.” These were the surrounding nations who were always lying in wait for an occasion against Israel. God would gather friend and foe against Jerusalem and use them as instruments to execute His judgments. Israel is to be punished in kind. She had cultivated friendship with the heathen and partaken of their iniquities, and now she shall be given up altogether into their power. “I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.” “The public judgment. First of all, the assembling of the lovers as witnesses. She who has dishonoured and brought herself to shame becomes now, by the interposition of God, to the one party an object of loathing, to the other an object of mockery. The last attraction, and what might still have been an object of regard, vanishes. Hävernick refers to the procedure in the case of a married woman suspected of adultery (Num_5:18).”—(Lange.)
Eze_16:38. “And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged.” This is the explanation of the figurative language employed in the last verse. Israel was to be punished with the punishment of adulterers and murderers. “And I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.” “Thou shalt be turned into blood, so that nothing but blood may be left of thee, and that the blood of fury and jealousy, as the working of the wrath and jealousy of God (compare Eze_16:42). To this end the heathen will destroy all the objects of idolatry, then take from the harlot both clothes and jewellery, and leave her naked, i.e. plunder Jerusalem and lay it waste, and, lastly, execute upon her the punishment of death by stoning and by sword; in other words, destroy both city and kingdom.”—(Keil.)
Eze_16:39. “And leave thee naked and bare.” “As thou wast before the Lord had mercy on thee (Eze_16:7). The unfaithful use of the gifts of God inevitably brings on their loss. God cannot be mocked.”—(Hengstenberg.)
Eze_16:40. “They shall also bring up a company against thee.” “This may be explained from the ancient mode of administering justice, according to which the popular assembly (Pro_5:14) sat in judgment on cases of adultery and capital crimes, and executed the sentence, as the law for stoning expressly enjoins (Lev_20:2; Num_15:36; Deu_22:21). But they are also applicable to the foes, who would march against Jerusalem” (Keil). “And they shall stone thee with stones.” The usual mode of capital punishment under the Mosaic law, and which was inflicted for the crimes of idolatry, adultery, and murder. This doom pronounced upon Jerusalem was accomplished literally, for she was “stoned” before she was burned (Jer_33:4). “With their swords.” Slaying with the sword was a mode of punishment adopted when there were many criminals to be put to death. It was also the doom of those who seduced men to apostacy (Deu_13:12-15).
Eze_16:41. “And execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women.” “The many women are the many heathen nations, according to the description of Jerusalem or Israel as an unfaithful wife.”—(Keil.) “As it is the greatest punishment to an adulterous woman to be exposed in her sin before the eyes of other women; so will the severest portion of Israel’s punishment be, that it will stand exposed in its sin before the eyes of all other nations.”—(Klieforth.) Concerning the burning of the houses of Jerusalem with fire, see 2Ki_25:8-9. “And thou also shalt give no hire any more.” “Because thou wilt have no more lovers; wilt, on the whole, after the dissolution of thy national independence, be no more in a condition which admits of impure intercourse with the world-powers.”—(Hengstenberg.)
Eze_16:42. “So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee.” “The jealousy ceases because it has found its satisfaction in their punishment, and exhausted itself therein, as the fire ceases when it has consumed its fuel.”—(Hengstenberg.) “The Divine justice comes to an end in its character of jealousy—in other words, as the injured faithfulness and love of Israel’s husband. The departing of the jealousy might, perhaps, by comparison with Isa_11:13, show grace in the background; but the connection with what follows requires rather a thought like Hos_2:4. Jehovah gives up the adulterous whorish wife.”—(Lange.)
HOMILETICS
THE PUNISHMENT OF APOSTACY
I. The loathsome nature of the sin is made manifest. The sin which the children of Israel had committed by their idolatry is called by its right name. It was the breaking of the sacred marriage-covenant into which God had entered with His people. All what whoredom and adultery is in the social state, all what filthiness is in the morals and manners of a people, such was their sin in the sight of God (Eze_16:38). Israel was guilty of unfaithfulness of the worst kind. God had given the nation the privileges of an espoused wife, but she sinned with many lovers, thus despising the great grace which had called her to such distinction and honour. God’s punishments sometimes begin by revealing our sin to us in all its real vileness. The very conviction of sin is a painful wound—the arrows of the Almighty within our spirit.
II. The very objects of sinful desire are turned into the instruments of punishment. “I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness” (Eze_16:37). Those who contributed to her sin shall be made the instruments of her punishment. Sinful love, sooner or later, changes into hate. The boon companions of the profligate turn out to be his bitterest enemies. They thus become a scourge in the hands of God to chastise him for his iniquity. There is no true honour amongst transgressors, for their life is founded upon a falsehood. And as God employed as a scourge for His people those who once were friends, He will also employ for chastisement those who were always enemies. “And with them that thou hast hated.” Those with whom the children of Israel sinned would make common cause with their enemies for their punishment.
III. The punishment will correspond with the sin.
1. In degree. They were to be punished as murderers and adulterers, for they had sinned “as women that break wedlock and shed blood” (Eze_16:38). Stoning was the punishment of adultery, and this threat was literally fulfilled upon Jerusalem, for she was stoned before she was burned (Jer_33:4). Their sin was great, and therefore their punishment, so great that even God’s fury is represented as being satisfied upon them, and quite brought to a pause (Eze_16:42). They could no further go in iniquity, and so God’s fury is represented as ceasing; by which we are to understand that it rested upon them. He left them to their fate. God can bring it about that we shall be able to sin no further.
2. In kind. Their sin was public, and so their shame and their judgment were public. Their sin was unfaithfulness towards God, and they are punished by the unfaithfulness of men. They cast God off, and men cast them off. That law which is true of individual man is true also of nations, that the very things which they sow they shall also reap.
(Eze_16:39-42)
1. God’s hatred is so great, against idolatry and idolators that He will not endure the places where they have used idolatrous worship. The places where they sinned must be destroyed, broken, utterly razed and ruined. Hezekiah is commended for four things; and the first is for removing the high places; then for breaking the images, cutting down the groves, and breaking the brazen serpent.
2. When we abuse the mercies of God, we give Him cause to take them away. They decked their high places with their garments (Eze_16:16); they made images of their jewels (Eze_16:17). Here God threatens to take away both the one and the other. He would give them into their hands who should rob them of their fair jewels, and strip them of all their clothes (Isa_42:22). “And leave thee naked and bare.” Before, in Eze_16:8, it is said, that God covered her nakedness. He found her naked, and now He would leave her naked and bare.
3. When God hath showed much kindness to a people, and they have been ungrateful, He will reduce them to their former condition. God did much for Ephraim, yet he was ungrateful, forgot God, went out to other lovers (Hos_2:2-3). God had spread His skirt over this Jewish woman, clothed her with embroidered silk and fine linen, decked her with choice ornaments and jewels, put His comeliness upon her; but she abused all His bounty and love, proved ungrateful and whorish, and therefore He would put her into her first condition, strip her of all, and leave her naked. She came out of captivity, she should now go into captivity; she was cast out, and now she should be cast out again; she was poor, beggarly, and had nothing, and should be made so again.
4. When judgments are executed upon a backsliding people, then God is at rest and is satisfied. When this woman, this Jewish state, fell into the hands of enemies, was plundered and spoiled, and all her glory laid in the dust; then God caused His fury to rest, His jealousy to depart, then He was quiet, and angry no more. Before judgment be thoroughly executed, God is troubled and restless; but when it is done, He is pacified, comforted, as it is in Eze_5:13. Before Jonah had judgment passed upon him, there was a great wind, and a mighty tempest in the sea. The Lord’s anger was let out. But when Jonah was sent, and cast into the sea—justice done—it is said the sea ceased from her raging. The Lord first ceased from His fury, He was pacified, and manifested it by stilling of the seas. God would bring the Assyrians upon the Jews; and what then? “The indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction” (Isa_10:25).—(Greenhill.)
This dire judgment is just; for Israel has not only forgotten God’s undeserved favour to her in her election, but has even surpassed both Samaria and Sodom in her abominations.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Punishment of the Lord Announced
The Punishment of the Lord Announced
v. 35. Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord:
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v. 36. Thus saith the Lord God, the sovereign Ruler of the universe, Because thy filthiness was poured out, literally, "thy brass was emptied out," figurative of a free abandonment to filthy lewdness in spiritual adultery, and thy nakedness discovered, that is, uncovered, made known, through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, the various heathen nations with which she had allied herself, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of the children which thou didst give unto them, v. 20:
v. 37. behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, the very ones whom she had sought with shameless overtures, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated, who would, of course, also gloat over her downfall; I will even gather them round about against thee, as witnesses, and will discover thy nakedness unto them that they may see all thy nakedness. By the punishment of God, Israel became an object of loathing to its former allies and an object of mockery to its enemies.
v. 38. And I will judge thee as women that break wedlock, the sentence pronounced upon adulteresses being carried out in her case, Lev 20:10; Deu 22:22 and [as those who] shed blood are judged, the latter sin being charged against Israel on account of the sacrifices to Moloch; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy, to be dissolved into blood as a consequence of such fury and jealousy.
v. 39. And I will also give thee into their hand, so that the former witnesses would be executors of the Lord’s sentence, and they shall throw down thine eminent place and shall break down thy high places, the temples and tire objects of idolatry; they shall strip thee also of thy clothes and shall take thy fair jewels, the articles of splendor with which she bedecked herself, and leave thee naked and bare, deprived of the honor and dignity which belonged to the people of God by virtue of their election to this position.
v. 40. They shall also bring up a company against thee, both witnesses and executioners, and they shall stone thee with stones, in keeping with the picture of the execution of an adulteress, and thrust thee through with their swords.
v. 41. And they shall burn thine houses with fire and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women; and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.
v. 42. So will I make My fury toward thee to rest, being satisfied with the punishment meted out, and My jealousy, the jealous rage of a wronged husband, shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet and will be no more angry. Since His justice had exacted the full penalty in keeping with the measure of her guilt, He would rest in anticipation of its beneficial effects.
v. 43. Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, with the blessings which the Lord poured out upon her at that time, but hast fretted Me in all these things, raging against Jehovah with her idolatrous behavior, behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, so that His punishment would bear down upon her like a heavy load, saith the Lord God; and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations, literally, "lest I commit the misdeed above all thy abominations," that is, if the Lord should permit the wickedness of Israel to continue unpunished, He Himself would add an abominable deed, since, by a false leniency, He would become guilty of the same wickedness, become a partaker in the idolatry of Israel.
v. 44. Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, rightly applying it to the children of Israel, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter, Jerusalem being considered here as the daughter of ancient heathenish Canaan.
v. 45. Thou art the mother’s daughter, that loatheth her husband and her children, rejecting the knowledge of the true God, just as the nations of Canaan had done, although He had still been known in their midst, as the example of Melchizedek shows; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, akin in guilt to Samaria and Sodom, which loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was an Hittite and your father an Amorite, and they had all inherited the spiritual make-up of these heathen nations, partly due to the fact that they did not exterminate the heathen as the Lord had bidden them do.
v. 46. And thine elder sister is Samaria, so called because she was in a moral respect more nearly related to Judah, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand, to the north; and thy younger sister, the smaller and in many respects not so nearly related to Judah, that dwelleth at thy right hand, toward the south, is Sodom and her daughters, that is, Ammon and Moab with their towns.
v. 47. Yet hast thou not walked after their ways nor done after their abominations, not even being satisfied with the deeds of wickedness for which these cities were known; but, as if that were a very little thing, as if their idolatrous conduct were not sufficiently wicked, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways, exceeding even the heathen in the measure of idolatry and the evils connected with idolatrous worship.
v. 48. As I live, saith the Lord God, in the most solemn oath which He could swear, Sodom, thy sister, hath not done, she nor her daughters, any of the smaller cities belonging to her city-state, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters, the guilt of the heathen cities being less great than that of Jerusalem.
v. 49. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, in these forms of transgression she excelled: pride, Cf Gen 18:21, fullness of bread, that is, more than an abundance of material wealth, and abundance of idleness, a security far removed from all anxiety, was in her and in her daughters, the result being a haughty arrogance; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy, for that is the way of such as are puffed up with their prosperity.
v. 50. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me, their transgression being so heinous as to call out to the Lord for punishment; therefore I took them away as I saw good, by the terrible catastrophe of the overthrow of their city. Yet Sodom was not as Wicked as Jerusalem had now become.
v. 51. Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins, it was, in fact, not particularly conspicuous in its heathenism after the time of Ahab; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done, making them actually appear righteous by comparison with her own wickedness.
v. 52. Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, condemning them for their transgressions and, with hypocritical demeanor, considering herself better than they, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they, being committed in spite of Jerusalem’s possession of the Law of God; they are more righteous than thou, namely, by way of comparison; yea, be thou confounded also and bear thy shame in that thou hast justified thy sisters, making them appear almost innocent in comparison with her own guilt. It is always a greater and deeper fall if people who have been in possession of the truth, who have enjoyed unusual advantages in the matter of God’s mercy, fall away from the path of righteousness than if those unacquainted with God’s holy will live in the sins which they have always followed, with little or no idea of the better way.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues to speak about Jerusalem as if the city were his unfaithful wife. The city represents the people who live there. (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)
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you have poured out your lust
Yahweh speaks of Jerusalem's lust as if it were liquid and of committing actions repeatedly to gratify that lust as if it were pouring that liquid from a container. AT: "you repeatedly committed actions to gratify your lust" (See: Metaphor)
poured out your lust
Some modern versions translate "poured your wealth out."
you gave them your children's blood
This refers to killing children as a sacrifice to idols.
behold
The word "behold" here alerts us to pay attention to the surprising information that follows.
so they see all your nakedness
Stripping a person naked in front of others was an action intended to humiliate the person. The word "nakedness" can be translated as an adjective. AT: "so they can see you completely naked" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
prostitute
word of God
Lord Yahweh
lust
false god
blood
children
love
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 16:35-38 Since Jerusalem behaved like an adulteress, it was…
16:35-38 Since Jerusalem behaved like an adulteress, it was fitting that she should face an adulteress’s death sentence. God would strip her naked in a symbolic act of divorce, thus reversing the clothing metaphor of marriage (see 16:8; Hos 2:2-3). Then the people would stone her (Lev 20:10; Deut 22:22). Since this would cover her naked body with blood, she would leave the world just as she came into it. This metaphor was fulfilled when the Babylonians destroyed the city in 586 BC.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.